Brokentoken Classic Arcade and Pinball Podcast

Happy Friday the 13th! PLEASE don’t break your finger hitting the rewind button on your Walkman ™! It’s the last of our Louisville Arcade Expo 2018 shows, and for this very special (and favorite) of days, we figured it only fitting to grace your ears with a never-ending montage of prior-episide outtakes featuring Whitney laughing, Brent lamenting and beep tone after beep tone after beep tone. The ONLY redeeming quality is the uber-cool soundtrack for the show. HA!

It’s no April Fools, yo! Instead, it’s our Saturday night livestream show (3/3/2018) direct from the floor of the 2018 Louisville Arcade Expo! Join in as we discuss everything from arcade, to pinball to Star Wars to Vlassic pickles... it all fits in somewhere along the line and one way or another - it works. :) We have a slew of folks who sit in with us for the show, including: *Grace Roberts and Gareth Milwood (the family tradition continues) *Adam Curry from "The Pinball Workshop" * J Patrick from Pod Casserole *David Corrigan from The Grand Ole' Gameroom Expo *Jeremy, Matt & Joe from the Louisville Arcade Expo *Chris Cruz from Griffin Aerotech, makers of SkyCurse *Corey Sims @ RecBar * Jeff Waldon & his daughter Paige *And last, but in no way least, friend of the show Shawn O'Shea

March 2018 Join us for our Friday night (3/2/2018) live stream show from the floor of the Louisville Arcade Expo! Friend of the show Shawn O’ Shea takes up the co-hosting duties for Whitney (he had a family commitment) and hangs on the microphones with Brent while we pull a few folks from the show floor – including our special guest – Mr. Steve Bowden from FunWithBonus.com! We really ratchet up our cred on this show and lay out 2.5 hours of ‘qualified’ pinball talk this time around – and we are even “Jim Hale approved”! Join in the fun pinball talk and take in the sounds from the expo!

February 2018 I’ll just park that show title right here, and you can thank Brent for that one! Even though February is always a hectic month for us (getting ready for the Louisville Arcade Expo) and such, we didn’t skimp on the free entertainment this month and managed to cram out 3 hours of shop talk on vector HV cages (hence the show title), a DIY Z80 pod for your Fluke 9010 tester, the absolute best IC puller known to man and a multi-Scramble kit that had Brent spending his own money faster than Whitney can – and that’s some trick. We also give the Pins their due and pay some respect to the fantastic PAPA tutorials and the good work done by Bowen Kerins and his team. Also, we’d like to give a special shout-out to Scott Danesi (www.scottdanesi.com) as he has graciously allowed us to use his MOST EXCELLENT music as the new official soundtrack for the podcast. Yep – we are now officially almost as cool as Total Nuclear Attraction. ALMOST. Here’s how the timings for the show break down: * Segment 1 – 00:00 – 01:15 – Monthly updates * Segment 2 – 01:15 – 01:56 – Tech and Spend Brent's Money! * Segment 3 - 01:56 - 02:41 - News and Feedback * Segment 4 – 02:43 – Outtakes!

Ah...winter - we want you gone. The cold gets so tiring, that we are left with not much to do other than muse on pork and pork-related products. Instead of waxing on about bacon, it’s really time to get back to projects, restoring some games and spending Brent’s money on absolutely everything in sight. Although the weather isn’t cooperating, we aren’t letting that stop us from another great show and 3.5 hours talking shop on arcade and pinball. This month, we gear up for the Louisville Arcade Expo and Jeremy Fleitz sits in with us as we learn what to expect from the 2018 version of the show. We talk fixing Pole Positions - and the FPGA multiboard status, swapping William’s power supplies for modern replacements, Vectrex games, whole-house surge protection and everything under the sun regarding Total Nuclear Annihilation. All up, a pretty dyslexic, but totally fun show! Oh yeah - Brent wants an Iron Maiden. Come on Stern!!

There’s no better way to wrap the year and send 2017 out with a bang than to wax nostalgic on why we sound absolutely NOTHING like the smooth tones of our favorite Christmas music poet from way back…Mr. Burl Ives. TBH, we don’t really dig much into Burl Ives in this episode, but it did make for a couple good references and it is that time of year! Instead, what you get for this last show is 2017 is a healthy heaping of reflection on the year, some current updates, some spending of the Brent’s money, some discussion on EEPROM programmers and some non-committal pinball talk about Guardians of the Galaxy and Total Nuclear Annihilation. Oh yeah – that and we want to go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi – like really bad. We thank everyone for their time in 2017 – we know you’ve got a choice in podcasts and we appreciate you continuing to spend your time with us! We will try (like harder than we did this year) to continue the push above mediocrity for 2018 – onwards and upwards!!

Thanksgiving comes and goes so quickly anymore, that it seems like the month of November just flies by – whether we want it to or not. Despite the pace, it’s always important to take the time and reflect on what to be thankful for this year. For us, it’s being back home safe and sound (Whitney) to get back in the studio and for not blowing out a Christmas budget (Brent) by spending too much money – and Whitney invents yet another new word! Did we say we are professionals? So true to form, what do we do instead of spending all of Brent’s money? We run through our monthly updates, talk about what’s coming up with the Holidays, Whitney recaps his UK trip for the Sky Skipper reveal at the Arcade Club and we discuss our most excellent weekend at the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo. We chat a bit about the upcoming Pole Position FPGA board, Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball and the Mike Doyle multi-Pac kit (Brent likes Pac-Man instead of Donkey Kong…go figure). As a special treat, we also have a bonus segment we recorded with Adam and JP of Podcasserole while at the Expo. It was a ton of fun, as we talked arcade games, movies, all kinds of pop-culture references, and learned quite a bit about Back to the Future, as well. Can’t no Tryptophan keep us podcasters down!

October 2017 It was bound to happen, but we’re proud to say it took 60 episodes before we had to call in a favor – friend of the show David Corrigan (from the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo) sits in the ‘Whitney chair’ this month and picks up the slack since Whitney has been out gallivanting across the globe with the UK Sky Skipper reveal. Despite the show improving quite a bit, just don't expect such a high bar to be upheld going forward every single episode… we can’t afford this kind of consistent talent! But enough with that, let’s hear about the good stuff – the games and what’s been going on this past month… Brent discusses some pretty significant lineup changes, and what’s he’s taking down to the Nashville show to put in the linuep. Multiple Tron’s are discussed (like who has two Tron’s anyway? It’s about like having 5 Defender’s…) and Brent runs through some good fix-up parts for MCR games. David gives us some some info on his background, his personal collection and digs into just what it takes to be the “head guy in charge” of running a large expo in today’s market. In a nutshell – it’s not easy, and it takes determination and commitment. We do wind up hearing from Whitney though, as he phones in an interview segment from across the pond as he and Alex review the UK Sky Skipper reveal weekend and discuss their thoughts on the project now that it is coming to a formal close. Stand ready though - we’ll hear the full recap of Whitney’s two weeks in the UK and more on the UK reveal event on the November show. We toss in some listener feedback, revisit the Ghostbusters topic and talk about more of Brent’s “famous” repairs as well. It’s a Happy Halloween/end of October freak-show bonanza (but without the clowns)! Here’s how the timings for the show break down: * Segment 1 – 00:00 – 01:10 – Monthly updates and David Corrigan! * Segment 2 – 01:10 – 02:29 – How to (and how not to) run an Expo * Segment 3 - 02:29 - 03:17 - Far&Wide with Alex Crowley * Segment 4 – 03:17 – 03:45 – News and Feedback * Segment 5 – 03:45 – Outtakes and stuff...

Summer is taking it's last bow here in the Bluegrass with fall on the way in and we take our best shot at holding onto the summer season as best as we possibly can. Brent visits some local (but often overlooked) arcades and fun parks, swaps around his gameroom lineup a bit and puts a Domino Man on ice - but not before taking 50V right across the arm while working on the Nip-It. Whitney does something he's not done in over a year - pick up game - and via Facebook no less. We discuss the upcoming UK Sky Skipper reveal, digital oscilloscopes and bust out a new segment for the show "Back to the Past" where we pull out some interesting facts/figures from old Playmeter and RePlay magazines and run some numbers through the handy-dandy inflation calculator and lament the "good old days" of buying games new in the box (err...crate). This is way more fun than raking a pile of autumn leaves (or a 50V shock) - trust us!

Brent threw down the gauntlet with this episode – if you can find an uglier patch of carpet than what he has in his workroom, then you win absolutely nothing - nada, zip, zilch…basically just bragging rights on the fact that you’re keeping it real while working on your games. We have the usual gameroom and hobby updates, discuss Fandom Fest, collecting Funco Pops (we even open a few on air) discuss the good/bad on various multimeters, spend some of Brent’s money and discuss a topic that we thought would never be covered on an arcade/pinball podcast - the arrest of legendary pinball designer John Trudeau. All this and feedback too – August 2017 goes down in the history books.

Yep – we admit it – we go “straight to plaid” in this months’ episode. We tried REAL HARD LIKE to not let the discussion around Stern’s new Star Wars Pinball capitalize the episode, but we couldn’t help ourselves. We analyze it from up one side and down the other and still net a solid zero at the very end of it all. Fortunately we have “Total Nuclear Annihilation” on the horizon and that promises to save the day – in more way than one. So, on with what promises to be a really fun show. We work through our monthly updates, as Brent just completed a pretty large group buyout on some killer titles (and a lot of PC10 carts, as well). He picks up his Jurassic Park and lays in a total surprise game pickup as well. Whitney discusses the next few chapters in the Sky Skipper Project and discusses some cabinet swaps he’s got going on. We cover off on a small soldering Q&A, review some hardware and for the first time in a few months we spend even more of Brent’s money. All this, a "Nip-It" alert to end all alerts, and some feedback as well!

We are back from the 2017 Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo and this episode can be considered our "Super Mega Doppler SFGE Wrap-Up" episode, as we cover off on all things related to the expo, including, but not limited to: Every friend we saw (of which there was a LOT) Every game we played (of which there was a LOT) Every panel we moderated or delivered (of which there was a LOT) Every Nip-It we played (of which there was ONE) Every time Brent tilted a pinball (of which there was a LOT) Every time we said "SFGE" or "Sky Skipper" this episode (of which there is a LOT)* WHEW!! Well - there you go! Episode 56 in a bag, baby!

It's the 'ol Double Nickel (episode 55, as Brent so eloquently educated us on) and we've got a real treat in store for everyone this month - Jersey Jack from Jersey Jack Pinball. He was in town for the Louisville Arcade Expo back in March and we've got the audio from his panel discussion ready for this month. As Brent said when he listened to it - "this is the best Jersey Jack discussion I've heard - period" and we'll park that right there. We dive into the Sky Skipper Project and discuss it at some extended detail as Whitney gets ready for the US debut at the Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo in June. We also talk through the month's happenings, some gameroom updates and a bulk buy that Brent is working on. Whitney finds a couple new ways to spend Brent's money and we have another great bunch of feedback to review, as well.

Yep, you read that right. This month’s show is best described as a fine ‘sit me back’ with your favorite smoking jacket and two of the finest tacos the Border has to offer. We roll back into the studio and recap our thoughts on the Louisville Arcade Expo, catch up on the happenings over both March *AND* April, get back into the swing of Spending Brent’s Money (shameless plug here…we racked up over a $500 bill EASY this month) and were delighted to feature a guest we’ve been wanting to have on the show for months now: Jimmy Litsey – BITD classic arcade operator of yore and man, does he have some cool stories to tell. As always we plow through a ton of great and fun feedback and some industry news as well. Oh yeah - the best part is always at the end, so be sure to stay through the credits!

All your April Fools belongs to us! Yeah – we went there. So - to help you recover from what was undoubtedly a VERY stressful April 1st, we bring you the recording of the live show we streamed on Saturday night, March 4th 2017. We managed to rotate quite the number of guests in/out of the booth during the course of the livestream (list below) and what more can we say than “we had a blast, and it shows”. *The Skycurser Devs - Philip Golobish and Christopher Cruz *Adam and JP from Pod Casserole (with a special episode of "Adam's Ghost") *David Corrigan from the Grand Ole Gameroom Expo *Whitney's nephew Gareth Milwood *Tony Thomas from Louisville’s RecBar *And last – but certainly not least (technically, she’s first) we have the show intro by Whitney’s daughter Grace – she carried us when we were nowhere to be found… The Louisville Arcade Expo has continued to grow year-after-year and is is hitting a really good stride now in both size, attendance and the sheer amount of content available to take in over the course of the show. The growth has lead to a brand new floor layout, a significant uptick in the number of games available to play, more seminars in a dedicated space and new segments of the hobby/genre being represented at the show. We recorded all of the relevant seminars and will be releasing both the audio and video from them in the next few weeks, as well. We’ll have the audio in upcoming episodes and the video will be on our Youtube channel. With that – grab a smoothie, sit back and enjoy a great night of fun at the 2017 Louisville Arcade Expo!